


switched

by dansunedisco



Series: Cordia Tumblr Fics [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bodyswap, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Gen, Magic, Magical Artifacts, Pre-Femslash, Witches, post-season 3b
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 23:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3307085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dansunedisco/pseuds/dansunedisco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Witches. It's always witches.</p>
<p>Or: Cora and Lydia swap bodies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	switched

**Author's Note:**

  * For [puppyfacedbrokenboys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/puppyfacedbrokenboys/gifts).



> Can't believe I've never written body swap before.
> 
> Also: story is canon compliant, with the caveat of Cora never leaving (or that she eventually did come back). 
> 
> The tag for **canonical character death** is a reference to Allison.

“So when I said ‘don’t touch anything’, what didn’t you understand?” Lydia snaps. 

Cora can’t help but shiver. The picture in front of her is wrong, so wrong. It’s _her_ body tensing and _her_ voice snarling, but the body language and holier than thou tone is one hundred percent Lydia Martin. And how typical, she thinks, that Lydia is so quick to toss the blame away. _Cora_ wasn’t the one who decided to mess around in a witch’s lair. In fact, she had argued against it.

She tries to stalk forward, but wobbles precariously on the stilettos she’s now magically wearing, courtesy of the talisman she had inadvertently touched not minutes ago. “God damnit,” she swears, anger sidetracked by the very possibility of breaking her—Lydia’s—ankles. “How do you walk in these things?” 

“Fabulously. Let’s not pretend you don’t notice,” Lydia says, coming forward to place steadying hands on Cora’s hips. The look of condescension is gone, however, replaced with concern—no doubt in Cora’s ability to stay upright. “We need to go.”

So while Cora’s hooks the heels off and steps down four inches, Lydia snatches the talisman up. They book it to Lydia’s Toyota soon after, Cora running on pins and needles.

 

-

 

They take the talisman to Deaton first, whose solution sounds exactly like a Disney movie plot.

“Soul-swap magic is usually rooted in the adage ‘walk a mile in the other’s shoe’,” he says, poking at the talisman with his pen. “Usually harmless, hardly ever permanent.”

Cora crosses her arms. “In other words?”

“ _Freaky Friday_ ,” Lydia says. “I need to learn a lesson about you, you need to learn a lesson about me.”

“There’s no other way?” Cora grumbles. It sounded _way_ too touchy-feely. 

“There _are_ ,“ Deaton admits, reluctantly. “However, there’s just as good a chance you’d end up spliced in half than back in your own body.” 

A part of Cora wants to be dramatic; declare that she’d rather take the chance of ending up like a whacked out Harry Potter horcrux than spent time trying to understand the so-called hardships Lydia Martin goes through, but that piece of her is squashed under Lydia’s imploring gaze. 

“We’re not interested,” she says instead.

 

-

 

As it turns out, the so-called hardships of Lydia Martin? Actual hardships.

“I’m not going to pass this test,” Cora says, slamming the textbook closed. She’s frustrated, and hungry, and just _done._ Hours and hours of studying in and Cora still doesn’t understand integers, and calculus was just the tip of Lydia’s 5.0 GPA iceberg. 

“You can do it,” Lydia says, after a long moment. “I _need_ you to do it.”

After the fire, Cora didn’t feel like herself. Like she went up in flames with everything else. Lydia had her own fire, too. Peter’s teeth and the screaming voices, a best friend dying and feeling every inch of it. There’s no telling how long they will be trapped as each other; if it will be a week, a month, a year, forever. And Cora realizes, stomach swimming with guilt, that it’s just as hard swallowing this pill for Lydia as it is for her. That _when_ , not if, they swap back, Lydia needs the transition to be seamless.

She opens the textbook and flips to the practice page again.

 

-

 

She gets an 89. The curve bumps it up to a 93. It feels like Christmas when Lydia beams, the stunning smile foreign on Cora’s own face.

 

-

 

It takes two weeks to swap back. There’s no big moment. No Hollywood magic, no earthquakes or fortune cookies.

One moment she’s studying for Lydia’s Friday quiz and the next she’s back in her own body. She gasps, the ceiling spinning above her for a dizzying second before it slows and rights.

“Lydia?” she asks, sitting up.

“Yes,” she replies around elated laughter, arms circling Cora’s shoulders. “I’m _back_. We’re back. Thank god! I don’t think I could handle another day wearing leather and a scowl.”

Cora leans down to touch her forehead to Lydia’s. Before, she would have taken offense—perhaps to anything that came out of Lydia’s mouth—but now, there’s a smile on her face, her heart warm. It feels like the start of something big, something new. She hopes Lydia feels it, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! <3


End file.
